Search - Muscadine :: Ballad of Hope Nicholls

Muscadine are a North Carolina quartet remarkably adept at mixing sturdy songwriting, pummeling guitars, and some intriguing vocal harmonies. Guitarists Jonathan Wilson and Benji Hughes sludge it up big time on "Alice in Indieland," lumbering forward under the whip of Malcom Walker's nimble jazz drumming, but the singing is soft and supple. This effect is heightened on "Wind-Up Doll" and "Well;" picture some early '70s long-haired Englishman sipping his tea and strumming away after a blast of some particularly potent weed. "Popsicles for Mommy" is another lovely creeper, unfolding like a Pink Floyd ballad before the guitars start raising their hackles and things blur like a cartoon fight's cloud of arms and legs. "She Doesn't Want Me" sounds like an AM radio ghost. "I want to be a debutante/I want to be a Southern Belle" Wilson and Hughes shakily sing on "Southern Belle." I'm not sure if it's a cry for respect or a declaration of transvestism. Either way, it's damn clear these guys have unusual things on their minds. Just when you think you've got the whole business nailed down, they explode into a Peter Green/Santana bongo jam called "My Little Cabbage." What the hell? Not every song is a winner and some of the playing gets a little noodly, but overall this is a hot debut album, awash in songwriting smarts, tasteful musicianship, and a refreshing sense of the unpredictable. --John Chandler